Shemite
Overview Shem is a non-Hyborian land of decadent despots in the west and fierce nomads in the east. This influential nation of over fifteen million people is a powerful commercial engine, drawing in wealth through overland trade via the well-travelled caravan routes that criss-cross the arid deserts and pastoral meadowlands. Trade is the life of Shem and the debauched city-states seem to specialise in their manufacture of goods, living off the unending camel trains. The luxuriant kingdoms are constantly at war with each other, each trying to steal domination of various trade routes, trying to destroy competition in search of ever elusive monopolies in some good or another. These trading kingdoms are the homes of the meadow Shemites, who are generally of medium height with hook noses, dark eyes and blue-black hair. Some families have Stygian blood, however and these people are gigantic, broadly and strongly built, with the same sort of facial features as the shorter Shemites. The wealthy urban Shemites wear loose, floor-length robes with sleeves. The robes are usually embroidered and may be made of dyed fabric and trimmed with cloth-of-gold. The poor wear simple sashed or belted tunics that are about knee-length. Roaming in their white-robed hordes, nomadic Shemites dwell in the eastern deserts. They raid their western cousins constantly, burning with a fierce hatred for their civilised kin. Many consider the cities, towns and villages of Shem to be little more than store houses for things the nomads want. Among the desert nomads, the most notorious, largest and most widely travelled tribe are the Zuagir. These determined riders of the hot sands range from Zamboula to Zamora, fighting savage battles along the eastern edges of the Hyborian nations. They survive through terrorism and plundering civilised lands. Other tribes include the Azilis. (There are two, kinda three groups of Shemites. The City-Folk and Meadow-Folk, and the Nomads. The Meadow and city people, are similar in the means of culture. The nomads however are different in many ways, but also very similar in others, as they are technically the same Nation/race). Storytellers and Liars Rich or poor, Shemites are renowned as unrepentant liars and tellers of tall tales. Treasures, riches and beautiful things cause the hearts and souls of the Shemites to soar. They live to accumulate wealth and beauty, surrounding themselves with jewellery and lovely slaves. Some are content to gather their wealth via trade and mercantilism, although many Shemites have roving minds and are willing to travel to find riches and slaves far from home. Most adventuring and wandering meadow Shemites are either merciless mercenaries or Pelishtim scholars. Clothing The standard dress for a nomad man is a white, girdled khilat, a robe with full open sleeves, linen, cotton or silken breeches and a flowing head-dress that falls to the shoulders and is banded about the temples with a triple circlet of braided camel-hair called a kafieh. The amount of embroidery on the khilat or kafieh indicates the relative position and wealth of the wearer. Cloaks are made of camel hair. Shemites also wear turbans wrapped around spired helmets. The women wear chadors, or full-body robes that include hoods and veils. Nomads The centre of nomadic Shemite society is the clan. A clan is a collection of families. Each family has its own tent. A number of clans create a tribe. The Zuagir tribe, for example, is comprised of several clans flung throughout the desert. The tribe as a whole rarely gathers. People living in the same clan are considered to be family, of the same blood and are usually automatically treated as honourable allies. Clans are led by sheikhs. Sheikhs adjudicate matters of conflict, shame, honour and revenge. Clan councils determine the distribution of water and the use of water resources. All men in a clan are considered equal, although the elders are accorded extra respect because of their experience. A Shemite nomad is expected to have total loyalty for the tribe and to uphold the survival of the tribe. The hospitality of Shemite nomads is legendary. Strangers are often met with displays of courtesy and respect. Those who betray or insult the nomads, however, are treated as dishonourable (note that actually asking for hospitality is insulting to a nomad). Those who trespass against the nomads are not easily forgiven or forgotten. The nomads are also expected to be generous to guests, giving up their last meal if necessary. Shemite nomads hold one thing above all else – water. They never waste water and the sharing of water is a sure sign of friendship and trust. Once a stranger is considered a guest, that stranger is under the protection of the host. The concept of vengeance is important to the nomads. It provides them with a social check against transgressions. As a rule they are not as discourteous as their civilised western brethren because of the threat of having their skulls split in a blood feud. Blood feuds are common among the nomads; their honour demands such things. When someone insults or dishonours another, the insulted family may justifiably kill the offender. The family of the slain man may disagree about the justification of the killing and feel insulted themselves and so kill a member of the other family, which, in turn, is insulted again and so on. The nomad tribes of Shem are essentially republics governed by opinion and tradition. No one can decree sovereign law to the nomads. No one can even enforce popular opinion. If a clan feels honour bound to act differently than the rest of the tribe, they are allowed to do so. City/Meadow People Shemite city-states are essentially theocracies. Although there is a hereditary aristocracy and a king, the temples are in charge of the city-states. There is no separation between religious and secular power. The kings of Shem claim a religious and a historical right to rule. Not only are they the representative of their patron gods on Earth, they are also the sons of kings, part of a lineage stretching back to the Great Cataclysm. Kingship is hereditary among the Meadow Shemites and Pelishtim. The king is most often from the warrior class, for he must be able to defend the city, enforce the laws, maintain the social order and lead wars. He must also take part in the religious ceremonies of the citystate. Thus he is a warrior and a priest. Many kings of Shem are essentially deified. The wife of the king is a queen and she is often the high priestess of the city-state or the personification of a goddess. Some kings rule by employing terror. They ruthlessly suppress rebellions through the asshuri. They deport rebellious populations from their city-state if needed, making them wander in the desert to die. They even treat the people they conquer brutally. Despite their employment of cruelty and violence, Shemite kings do not have totalitarian power. The king of a Shemite city-state is advised by a council of elders and by the priests. The aristocracy function as administrators, working for the king. The aristocrats work as scribes and functionaries in the service of the king. The aristocrats are responsible for drafting commoners to work on community projects, collect taxes in the form of a percentage of their crops and to ensure the canals and other methods of irrigation are in constant repair. Further, the aristocrats divide up the grain they collect for the city to give to its soldiers or any others it supports. The aristocrats exempt themselves from physical labour but there is no system for sycophants and hangers-on; each aristocrat has a duty to the king, the temple and the city-state. The priests are charged with maintaining the social status-quo. They tell the commoners their hard labours are necessary because they were created to serve the gods. The priests often sit on the city councils of elders alongside the aristocrats to help advise the king. They help maintain social order by teaching that right belief means nothing but that right behaviour is the key to being blessed by the gods. Women Meadow Shemites: Women have important rights in Shem, although they are hardly treated as the equivalent of men by the culture. Women are considered part of the fruits of war, a sexual reward for the soldiers who fight so gallantly, so women must be considered less than men for this to be so. A woman is free to engage in trade and business and may own property, however, if married, she must guard against seeming free with other men or making fun of her husband, to avoid a divorce. Women can choose which son gets her inheritance. Even if they are but slaves, if they give birth to a free Meadow Shemite’s children, they are given several protections by the law, such as care by the man’s father or brother should the man die. However, a woman’s only power is often only the sway her personality may have within her family. Virtually any woman is vulnerable to sexual slavery, for any woman can be captured in war or sold by their husband or father to pay off debts. The vulnerability of women to be captured in war as concubine slaves makes women in Shem dependent upon the armed might of the city-state for their protection. In general, a woman’s place in Meadow Shemite society is in the home. Her duty is to bear children, keep the home in order and obey her spouse. Nomadic Shemites: Among the nomad tribes, women play a central role and are full partners in the household. They help to build and dismantle tents, care for the flocks, raise any crops, perform any needed weaving and make or repair clothing. Most women do chores during the day, such as milking animals, caring for young children, spinning wool, weaving cloth, tending flocks, cooking, drawing water and mending tents and clothing. They are usually old and worn out by forty. Some Shemite tribes have matrilineal inheritance. Women can marry more than once and are not secluded for the most part. The advice of women are sought in clan councils and many are authors of clan poetry. Women of the nomad tribes enjoy more freedom and power than Meadow Shemite women. They are protected by a strict code of honour held by the men. They can move about freely and can talk to other men without fear or shame. Some rare few who show the aptitude can even become raiders and warriors. Women of the nomad tribes are also vulnerable to sexual slavery and concubinage. Any woman taken in a raid becomes the legal property of the victor – and becoming property is the same as becoming a slave. Slavery The Shemites are well-known as slavers, roving the Black Coast in slave ships, trading and raiding for ‘human trade goods’ to sell on the block in Shem. Virtually all Shemite cities and markets have slave blocks. Dancing girls, servants, labourers, gladiators, eunuchs and pleasure girls are common. Hyborian women dread slavery in Shem, where the depraved desires of the decadent Shemites shame and humiliate them. The Shemites themselves are also sometimes taken as slaves – the founders of Gazal in the deserts of the Black Kingdoms use Shemite slaves. Also, the Black Corsairs often raid the coasts of Shem for plunder and slaves. Religion The polytheistic Shemites have a penchant for gods and goddesses. Each city state worships some obscene fertility god or goddess as its patron, trusting that their horrible, squat brass idols actually hold the essence and presence of those gods and goddesses. Most of these fertility deities are Earth Mothers of the sort common to agricultural communities. Gods are the subordinate lover gods of the goddesses. In many of these religions, male consorts are killed and reborn each year, coinciding with annual growing and harvest cycles. Many Shemite rituals involve enactments of this sacrifice and rebirth in caricatured, symbolic manners that often include human sacrifice and sexual rituals. Indeed, even coming before these awesome and feared gods, humanity must show humility, which often requires that worshippers approach on their hands and knees in the nude. {Note: Their gods include: Adonis, male fertility god. Ishtar, female fertility god. Anu, The Sky-god. Derketo, Rival of Ishtar and Bel, God of Thieves.) Military The mercenaries of Shem are considered to be men devoid of compassion or mercy. These cold-blooded killers for hire are inhumanly cruel, fighting with the ferocity and lust of wild beasts. They do not leave fallen foes behind but kill the wounded and the downed with pitiless intensity. Although some of the Shemitish mercenaries are skilled with swords and spears, their archers are the most in demand. Extremely keen of eye, the Shemites are feared for their deadly archery skills. They are practically born with bows in hand and horses beneath them. Dressed in scale corselets and cylindrical helmets, the sons of Shem are always ready for war. The elite warriors of the meadow Shemites call themselves asshuri and they do not refer to themselves as Shemites. They are members of whatever tribe or region they belong to. They are not Shemite asshuri but the asshuri of Nippr or the asshuri of Eruk. Their swords have pommels shaped as hawks and the material these are made of displays the prowess of the mercenary. An asshuri with an iron hawk has killed at least ten men in battle. A bronze hawk indicates twenty slayings in war. A silver hawk shows fifty confirmed kills. The gold hawk is given to those hearty warriors who have slain over a hundred men in various wars and skirmishes. Shemite archers, armed with powerful bows, are capable of breaking the thunderous charges of armoured knights on their mighty horses. They can kill horses with their deadly shafts or pick off the knights from their mounts, heedless of their armour, for every suit has weak points – something the keen-eyed Shemites always manage to find with their stinging arrows. Only the Bossonians are regarded as better bowmen and only the Hyrkanians are considered superior horsemen and both points are hotly contested by the cruel Shemites. The leaders of the Shemite Horde learn tactics and strategy from their western brothers. Although they rarely speak of it, they make extensive use of entrapment, military intelligence and mobility warfare tactics quite unlike the ‘charge and destroy’ methods employed by other hordes. These sophisticated skills, combined with the raw strength of their spirit, make them a formidable adversary for the Stygian soldiers who constantly threaten their lands.